Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders unveiled her plans for a Medicaid work requirement during a Tuesday news conference.
The governor explained that the program would update the existing ARHOME Medicaid program. The “Pathway to Prosperity” update would introduce work and community engagement requirements.
Sanders emphasized that the work requirements aim to improve both health outcomes and economic independence for ARHOME enrollees.
In a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary-Designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sanders requested a waiver to existing Medicaid rules to allow Arkansas to implement a work requirement.
“Our goal is never to take services away from those who need it but to help people stand on their own two feet so they don’t have to count on the government,” the governor’s letter stated.
Sanders followed up with statistics, calling the system broken.
“There are 220,000 able-bodied, working-age adults in Arkansas receiving free healthcare courtesy of the taxpayer, costing us more than $2.2 billion each year – and growing,” she wrote. “Of those recipients, estimates show nearly 90,000 have no job. Most Arkansans work hard to pay for their health insurance while these healthy adults do not work at all. That is a backward, broken system.”
On Tuesday, Sanders clarified that those who are able to work will either be required to work, attend school, or stay home to care for their children.
Deputy Secretary for Programs and State Medicaid Director Janet Mann outlined the program’s operations.
Individuals who “could use extra support” will be identified through data-matching and audits. Once identified, they will be eligible for success coaching and/or connections to educational programs to better engage with the community.
Those who do not comply will face suspension, not removal, from ARHOME. Mann explained that suspension allows for quicker reinstatement.
Sanders pointed out that the key changes from the previous Arkansas Medicaid work requirement, which was halted by a judge in 2019, include data matching, success coaching, and the suspension instead of removal process.
If approved, Arkansas would become the first state in the nation to implement a Medicaid work requirement.
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